Can Humans Survive a trip to Mars? No Way!

I think some one has already pointed this out, but the shuttles and the station do not pass through the Van Allen Belts. They operate below them.

The inner-most belt is located at approximately 4300-13000 miles. The shuttle and station operate in the LEO of about 300-350 miles.

The astronauts have radiation counters that keep up with their cumulative exposure to radiation. There is a lifetime limit that once they hit I guess
they get retired to a desk job, or the speaker circuit. lol.

As far as a Mars mission. Even as far back as the 80's (the Ride document) it has been discussed that older astronauts would most likely be used for
extended missions such as Mars. The idea being that if the effects of extended radiation exposure take years to decades to manifest (i.e. cancer) a
younger astronaut would be more likely to suffer the ill-effects than an older one would.

As far as a Mars mission. Even as far back as the 80's (the Ride document) it has been discussed that older astronauts would most likely be used for
extended missions such as Mars. The idea being that if the effects of extended radiation exposure take years to decades to manifest (i.e. cancer) a
younger astronaut would be more likely to suffer the ill-effects than an older one would.

What are the human challenges of a long-duration mission to Mars. Can the psychological and physiological challenges of this trip be met?

I think they can. As many mentioned, artificial gravity (quite do-able with current tech, centrifuge idea) would offset most of that. Not to
mention, they exercise with resistance (i.e. something holding them down on a treadmill, etc. with force to mimic gravity) to avoid the bone loss,
etc. Still, for long-term trips, the fluid issue is of concern, and that's why you'd want artificial g's.

As for the radiation, the big kicker here is time...how long are they exposed, etc. Sure, if you were to try and COMPLETELY shield them you'd need
the 6 feet, etc. However, this has never been the case. For the moonshots, they simply passed thru, took their lumps, until they reached a limit
(see Val's comments). No different here for the Mars trip.

As for psychological, this would depend on communication back and forth, etc. With e-mail, video phones, internet, news, etc., I doubt they'd have
much to cope with there really....especially if some effort was made to make the ship comfortable and homey.... The biggest challenge would be
palatable food for that long, hehe.....

Which brings us to the real challenges, water, waste disposal, food, fuel, etc. NASA has already come up with some great solutions, so I'd bet
they're up for the task. Sadly though, I'd bet that our first attempt on it will NOT go smoothly.....

I don’t know how accurate this is but NASA proposes a ship that would create its own gravity by spinning the ship. This was published in 1971.

“The crew extends the solar arrays, then spins the Mars ship end over end about twice per minute to produce artificial gravity in the MM equal to
one-sixth Earth's gravity (that is, the equivalent of lunar gravity). The spin axis remains located in the forward third of CPS #6 (the CPS nearest
the EPS module) throughout the expedition.”

Originally posted by Amuk
There is also resurch into using electrical pulses to the nerves in your muscles to work them out in zero-g. Although not perfected or able to solve
all the problems it shows promise.

My thoughts posted earlier, only I spoke of it as late night adds for reducing you waist, with electric gizmos that work the muscles.

Wasn't 2010 sequel to 2001 showing something like this when they woke up wearing that fishnet suite perhaps to stimulate the muscle while sleeping,
with the Hatian Vodoo powder putting them into a sleep state with eyes wide OPEN, we could flash manuals or things needed to be done when taken
out?

Question would be how long could you use the drug and what side affects would it produce?

What if those little "blueberries are (still) alive? They might not affect us at all, but who knows what they could do to other organisms. Maybe
they'll kill 90% of the plankton in the ocean.
I'd consider it unlikely that none would be brought back on accident, even if they're not alive. Mars is an extreme environment, therefor anything
living there would be a real survivor.
It would be like Andromeda Strain, but real and our fault.

Its quite simple... even though we could theoretically make a ship that you would be able to look out the back of at earth, there would always be the
problem that earth isnt visible from mars any more than mars is from earth... all they would see is a bright star...
as for the psycological effects this would have... i dont see this as a huge problem...

Now obviously this would have some effects but i feel if they send someone who is psycologically sound and has an adventurous spirit this would be
fine... in fact i feel it would be great for the individual if they were adventurous... i could think of nothing i enjoy more than going into
uncertainty and not being able to see where i came from... thats how the earth was explored and colonized... us humans like going into the unknown...
how many people on columbus's trip went nuts?... not too many coz they made it

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